Peer pressure is a dirty word (or words), right? It's that ugly, evil force that entices young people to smoke. To mouth off. Even, sometimes, to shoot up.

But peer pressure is also one of the secrets behind the great performance of the world's most customer-centric companies.

The power of positive peer pressure

I'm talking about positive peer pressure. This is the force that doubles the significance of every hiring decision in how customer service is provided at great companies — including, I hope, yours.

One reason that your hiring decisions affect the treatment of customers is obvious: the direct interactions between those you hire and your customers, not to mention employee involvement in the creation of systems and processes that aid or hinder those customers.

But another reason multiplies the customer service value of hiring the right employees: the peer pressure each employee exerts on other staff members, whether this pressure is negative or positive. Paying attention to this dynamic is another secret of companies with strong cultures and great hiring practices.

Pulitzer Prize (and National Book Award)–winning writer Tina Rosenberg has shown the power that positive peer pressure has had around the world in varied contexts: to combat tobacco marketing (a new youth sensibility was created where the rebellion became against corporate ‘‘brainwashing’’ pushing them to smoke, rather than against parents who were pushing them to abstain), to improve poor math performance in African American students (peer study groups, similar to those already in use by Asian American students, served to make learning calculus a friend-building activity), and in many other areas.

How peer pressure drives customer-centricity at the great customer service companies

A similar dynamic is at work at great customer-serving companies like Apple, Southwest Airlines, and Four Seasons Hotels And Resorts, even though the specifics of what the positive peer pressure represents varies by company:

• Where the ‘‘cool kids’’ are the ones who love the products and love explaining them to create new converts while, paradoxically, obsessively protecting the company’s intellectual property and other advantages (Apple)

• Where everyone goes the extra mile to help customers—even to the point of gate agents slinging bags and pilots guiding wheelchairs—in a peer culture where not pitching in is unthinkable (Southwest)

• Where employees support each other in their support of their guests—whether that means bringing milk and cookies for kids or working together to rescue guests (including Jimmy Kimmel) during an impending Tsunami (Four Seasons)

If you hire people, and inspire people, in a way that aligns with your goals, the effect on future “generations” of hires allows the effect to snowball. Why do you think that everyone at Disney picks up trash when they see it? It’s not because it’s taught at orientation (although it is). It’s because the tradition is grounded enough among the old-timers that it affects the behavior of every new hire. They see the already-successful in-group picking up trash. And they realize pretty quickly that that’s way to fit in: whether you’re a Mickey impersonator or a custodian.